In my experience, hammers and maces have been relatively useless, if only because I've seen my hammerdwarves knock a foe out and then repeatedly bash them, causing bruises and breaks and splinters and pain for probably 10 minutes before finally - finally - getting that one blow to the head that shatters the skull and destroys the brain. Edged weapons, with their puncture wounds and lopped-off limbs, make enemies bleed out, which is much faster. There have been times I've sent a squad of hammerdwarves out to kill something, and they bash on it forever. Then a sword- or axedwarf showed up and ended the fight in a stroke or two. As for swords v axes, I seem to recall something about swords having more attack types than axes, but I wasn't entirely sure of what that meant.
That said, the last time I decided to attend the circus, it was my hammerdwarf that held off the onslaught even after all the other soldiers were dead. Y'know, before her hand was shattered by a kick, she dropped her mace and her shield, and was promptly and literally ripped to pieces as the fortress flooded with magma. That iron mace, Nilesmaid, still rests deep within the cursed, magma-filled halls of Crystalgates.
So there might be something to blunt weapons. I haven't done quite enough SCIENCE! to be certain.